Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata

A quick and easy classic Italian dish, on your table in 30 minutes! Your family will love the bright fresh flavors of this easy lemon chicken piccata

No need to go to a restaurant for great chicken piccata, it’s easy to make at home, in just 30 minutes! This version uses bright lemon flavor to really accentuate the light and fresh qualities of the meal. Soon to be your family’s favorite!

My love affair with Italian food continues! Chicken piccata has always been one of those meals we ate at restaurants… it was “restaurant food”. Even though there are a ton of recipes out there, for some reason, I never tried making it. Well a little while back I finally decided that was stupid and I came up with a great recipe that we love!

The freshness in this dish is just out of this world… crazy good! Good enough that despite there being “green things” and “onion things” in this dish… my kids ate, and loved it. SCORE!!

The longest part about cooking this meal, is waiting for the pasta water to boil. You can get this meal on the table in 30 minutes, so it’s perfect for a hectic weeknight meal. If you feel like being ambitious or making this on a weekend, it would be delicious with these copycat Olive Garden breadsticks or a no-knead artisan bread.

To start this off, you need some chicken breasts, which I chose to pound thinner. You could also use chicken tenders for this 🙂 You’ll be breading the chicken, but not in the traditional way… instead of dipping the chicken in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs… you’ll just be tossing it in some seasoned flour and then searing them up in a skillet.

I seared my chicken in batches of 2, so they could get brown and not end up steaming because they were too close together.

You want that golden brown color, because not only does it make the chicken delicious, those browned bits in the pan will make your sauce phenomenal!

Once your chicken is cooked through and golden brown, set it aside to rest on a plate. Add your shallots and garlic to the same pan and let them saute for a minute or so, then add in the rest of your sauce ingredients.

Not the prettiest sauce while it’s cooking… but the flavor is wayyyyy better than it looks!

Let the sauce bubble and cook for a few minutes. While it’s cooking, drop your pasta in the boiling water. Once it’s cooked to al dente, or your preferred doneness, drain it and toss it with some olive oil, parsley and basil.

Now I don’t know about you… but I could eat that bowl of pasta just like that!!

Just slice up your chicken and add it to your pasta.

Garnish with some lemon slices, then pour your sauce over the pasta and chicken.

Sprinkle some fresh basil all over the top and enjoy!!

Seems pretty simple doesn’t it? You can do this… this classic Italian meal can be on your table 🙂

This would be great with some garlic roasted broccoli served alongside. Although, we had a yummy caeser salad, that recipe will be coming soon, don’t worry 🙂

Instructions

Heat butter and oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Season flour with salt, pepper and chopped fresh basil. Add thyme, salt and pepper to each side of the chicken breasts, then dredge in the seasoned flour.

Place the chicken breasts in the skillet. Cook in batches of 2 (unless you have a huge skillet) to ensure a golden brown exterior. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side, or until chicken is completely cooked through. Remove chicken to a plate and set aside. Repeat with remaining chicken breasts.

Drop your pasta in salted boiling water and cook until al dente (according to package directions).

Reduce the heat to medium low. Add shallots and garlic to the same skillet, stir to saute for 1 minute. Add stock, wine, lemon juice, heavy cream, and capers. Whisk to combine and bring the sauce to a low boil. Taste the sauce and adjust salt and pepper if necessary. Simmer the sauce for 3 minutes.

Drain pasta, place in a bowl, drizzle with olive oil and add fresh basil and parsley, and toss to combine.

Slice the chicken into strips and place over cooked pasta. Pour sauce over the top and garnish with chopped parsley and basil.

Video

Notes

** If desired, serve with cooked pancetta or bacon as an additional garnish.

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79 comments on “Easy Lemon Chicken Piccata”

When I saw this I could not wait to get my hands to make this. I was excited.
My husband and I enjoyed this recipe! Lemonly delicious. ;D
I did, however, use thin cut chicken breast instead of the regular 4-pack, and I added creole seasoning to season the breasts for a little bit more flavor than the thyme.

Hi Heather! Unfortunately when I redesigned my site, there were some bugs in the coding of the recipe plugin.. I’m working on it, but with over 200 recipes, it’s taking a bit of time :/ It should read 3/4 cup heavy cream and 1/4 cup capers 🙂 Hope you love it!!

My grand daughter and I have started cooking together one night a week – long distance via skype. Your Lemon Chicken Piccata recipe is what she has chosen for this week’s meal. I am curious abou the lemon juice. When it says to add lemon juice to the sauce – is that the entire juice of the two lemons?

Hi Brenda, I think that’s am amazing thing you two are doing… cooking together via skype. Love it!! Yes, it’s the juice of both lemons. If your lemons are really juicy, you could use the juice of one lemon and then taste the sauce to see if you’d like to use the remaining lemon 🙂 I hope you both love it!!

I have a good news and a bad news, let me say bad news first. I am a vegetarian $_$. now, time for good news, I have signed up for newsletter means whenever new recipe will arrive I will get it in my inbox and I will try to give my response on your new recipes, this is my 2nd time on your blog, so thought to get familiar with this blog.. added to my email list, let see who frequently I get recipes in my inbox. I will be waiting for it. Good day ^^

I made this for the first time tonight. I had to modify a little bit due to what I had on hand (no capers, extra broth instead of wine), but it was FANTASTIC! I was a bit weary of the lemon/pasta combo, but it is so good. Even the noodles without the chicken is wonderful and I bet it will be even better for lunch tomorrow.

Chicken Piccata is one of my all time favorite dishes. There’s just something about the lemon and capers that are amazing together. You received the most clicks last week, over at Simple Supper Tuesday. We would love for you to join us again, starting Monday night at 8pm EST.

Fabulous recipe! Your pictures have me drooling! Thank you very much for joining in the celebration of #purebloglove, we enjoy having you each week. I hope to see you on Thursday at 8PM, EST through Sunday night. ~Cydnee

I can’t tell you how incredible this looks… As somebody obsessed with lemon, this hits every one of my sweet spots! Thank you for posting this and I can’t wait to repin it for folks! My sister will die! LOL!

OMG. I LOVEEEEE (LOVE LOVE) Chicken Piccataaaaa! The only person who loves it more than I do is my huzzzzzzzband. So he’s going to LOVE you for this… I can nottt wait to make it. Your pics, as usual, are insaneeeee!!!!!!

Thank you so much Michelle!! 😀 It’s always nice to have staple meal that everyone loves! I hope you love this recipe too 🙂

Hello There!

I'm Amanda... a wife, mother of two rambunctious kiddos, photography nerd, and bacon lover! I believe that gourmet meals should be something we can ALL enjoy. Now that you're here, stay a bit, browse a few recipes, and let's get cookin'!